Verus Antoninus
A Chaos Space Marine of the Shadow Reavers, Verus Antoninus is the warband's Master of the Fleet, captaining the Battle Barge Caliginis Rex and overseeing the work of the warband's subservients, the Chaos pirates of the Porphyr Elixis. Showing a great propensity for the task, Verus guides the Shadow Reavers through the fickle void of the Maelstrom, devastating enemy armadas with tactical proficiency that equals his great and unerring gunslinging skills. History Along with his twin brother Aurelius, Verus was born in 015.M37 on the planet of Igan, the Homeworld of the Shadow Griffons chapter of Space Marines. Growing up in the planet's hives, the siblings were taken in by the Adeptus Astartes and became a part of their neophytes. As the implantation process progressed, the Griffons' geneseed flaw manifested itself in the pair, mutating the initiates' Lyman's Ears to where they could no longer isolate certain sounds, amplifying all sound instead, making even the lowest hum painful and overpowering. Verus persevered, and as was chapter doctrine, he began using the super-sensory flaw to better his skills at infiltration as well as marksmanship, something he had proven to be quite proficient at. Serving in the Griffons' scout squads, he became deadly with a bolter and soon advanced in rank, eventually making his way to veterancy, becoming Sergeant of a Sternguard squad within the chapter's elite 1st Company. During the Invasion of Rhiadan in 318.M37 and at the death of Master of Shadows Germanicus, then First Shadow Captain Crassus took the chapter master's place, with Verus's brother Aurelius in turn being promoted to First Shadow Captain. As his first decree as Master of Shadows, Crassus initiated Verus into the chapter's Honour Guard, trusting the talented battle brother to protect him on the field of combat. He accepted the charge, swearing to serve loyally as Crassus's bodyguard and wise role model to all his battle brothers. The Abyssal Crusade However, Verus's position as Honour Guard was short lived, for the chapter's homeworld and Verus's birth planet, Igan, was absorbed by Warp Storm Dionys in 321.M37. Under the incessant power of the Warp, the chapter's sacred geneseed repositories and its reliquaries were lost. To make matters worse, the Shadow Griffons were branded as impure by the Ecclesiarchy and sent on a Crusade of penitence into the Eye of Terror. They had no choice but to accept this charge, and soon their ancient void-spires drifted slowly towards the terrible rift in realspace as the Caliginis Rex, the main battle barge of the Shadow Griffons and accompanied by its twin vessel Dagger of the Emperor, made for the Eye. Numerous Strike Cruisers followed the honoured crafts, circling the ships like a flock of swarthy birds. At the ancient Cadian Gate, the Griffons met with the rest of the Judged: their brothers deemed corrupted and sent to die in the Abyssal Crusade. The Argent Hammers, the Viridian Consuls and Tempest Legion among many others, drifted similarly into hell. At the Warp’s very entrance, the Arch-enemy was waiting. A gathered fleet of corrupted vessels bearing the symbols of Chaos assailed the Judged, firing with volleys of torpedoes and battery fire. The Caliginis Rex retaliated, its lances catching a Despoiler Battleship on its starboard bow. Through the long and protracted battle, the Griffons' smaller vessels were lost one by one to the enemy or to the raging storms of the Empyrean. As the conflict went on, the currents of the Warp rifted, crackled and licked at the vessels, becoming increasingly unstable. A burst of eldritch lightning struck the Dagger of the Emperor and ripped it apart with the bemused fury of a wicked god. Fourth Shadow Captain Retianus, master of the Griffons' fleet, was on board when the vessel ceased to be. Meanwhile, the Caliginis Rex was in chaos. A torpedo blast damaged the barge's bridge, the kinetic impact killing most of the crew on board. Verus made haste to assess the damage and aid any survivors if they could be found, sending the rest of the Honour Guard to protect the Master of Shadows, who had been overseeing defensive preparations should the ship be boarded. As soon as Verus reached the bridge, a second torpedo hit, critically damaging its gateway. Verus was stuck and vox communications were out. Helping the survivors, he took it upon himself to lead the Griffons fleet from danger, assessing that the threat was overwhelming. Shadow Griffons doctrine, based around strategic and fluid engagements and battling when most prudent, demanded that the fleet retreat. Verus ordered the remaining Strike Cruisers and Nova Frigates to rally around the barge and attempt to push through the Heretic Astartes pincer. The enemy opened focused fire, destroying the Strike Cruiser leading the convoy in a single salvo. Emerging at full speed suddenly from its wreckage, Verus pointed the Caliginis Rex at the enemy blockade, ramming into a Murder Cruiser and its escorts. The Battle Barge took heavy damage, but it tore open its opposition, scattering it to the Warp and opening a way out of the trap. Followed closely by the surviving fleet, the ship made way for clear space. But there is no safety in the Eye of Terror. The Warp expanded and buckled suddenly, ripping apart several Shadow Griffons vessels with fell energy. The Harrier, the Griffons' last remaining Strike Cruiser swerved uncontrollably to the starboard, taking with it several frigates and exploding with tremendous force. As the deluge continued, the rest of the fleet were lost one by one, and the Battle Barge, damaged and alone, found itself hurtling uncontrollably through Warp space, away from the battlefield, away from the fighting and the Judged. Fall The Shadow Griffons were almost destroyed, barely a hundred of their number remaining upon their single surviving, damaged vessel. When the bridge gateway was finally cleared, the Master of Shadows assessed the situation. The old fleet master gone, Crassus transferred that duty to Verus Antoninus, praising his quick thinking and able tactical control. Immediately Verus set to repairing the vessel, for there was nothing left to do but continue the Crusade. And so the Shadow Griffons went from planet to planet, purging what they could. For sixty six years they roamed the Eye of Terror, lost but slowly repairing their vessel. For his part, Verus aided the planetary offensives through orbital bombardment strategies, saving the landing Shadow Griffons from disaster several times. But as they went further into the Warp, the Griffons' flaw exacerbated, sounds becoming more and more pronounced. Even the most hardy of them found the pain unbearable and the chapter was nearing madness, such was their suffering. Verus could barely keep it together, fighting through every moment of his station. Finally, the Caliginis Rex drifted towards the Black Planet, an orb of blackest night. The ship's sensors were malfunctioning as it approached, and Verus thought they were dealing with a black hole at first. Yet after deliberation and analysis, the Master of the Fleet realized it was a planet, a Daemon World of some sort. Within the hour the Shadow Griffons made planetfall with Verus remaining behind as orbital support. Yet somehow he seemed to be with them there, seeing in his mind's eye what his brothers were seeing, and what they experienced: their flaw was gone. And Verus's flaw was gone likewise. And when the Griffons reneged their service to the False Emperor and declared themselves the Shadow Reavers, it was as if Verus was there by their side, swearing his fealty to Chaos along with them. And as the shadow wisps of the Black Planet began dancing around the shapes of his brothers on the surface, so too did they begin to emanate from his own. Appearance and Personality With skin the color of whitest snow and eyes and hair of deepest black, Verus, like all of his warband, bears the mark of the raven. Since his fall to Chaos, his form had been hidden by a miasma of shadow, but beneath it, a stern and calculating face looks on, unforgiving. Scarified patterns adorn the left side of his face, forming a mark of chaos embedded within his skin. Slick jet black hair pulled back, his head is seldom uncovered by a purple hood. On Verus's left shoulder pad a golden plate bearing the Mark of Slaanesh is displayed, and twinned skulls adorn the exhausts of his backpack. From beneath a purple robe hangs a golden talisman, a giant chaos star strung up by golden chains. Warmer and more open than the other who bears his face, Verus is on good terms with most warriors of his warband. Although as calculating and tactically gifted as his twin brother Aurelius, Verus has been known to burst out in uncontrollable, murderous rage. Several times this rage has resulted in victory for the fleet as, driven by fury, he had made decisions that had caught the enemy off-guard. While protective of the Reavers and their Battle Barge the Caliginis Rex, Verus does not show the same sentiment for the Porphyr Elixis, the piratical chaos cults that follow their fleet, and he will willingly sacrifice thousands of them in lieu of the warband's Heretic Astartes, using their many smaller vessels to shield the Caliginis Rex from harm. This protectiveness, exacerbated by the perfectionist streak of Slaanesh's servants, borders on mania and even the slightest scratch to the battle barge is a humiliating defeat for its Master of the Fleet. Skills and Equipment Verus shows a great propensity for strategy, and has quite naturally and instinctively slipped into the role of fleet master. Proving extremely proficient in this position, he has guided the Shadow Reavers through the fickle void of the Maelstrom for centuries and devastated enemy armadas with a brutal cunning that equals his great and unerring marksmanship skill, bringing the warband to victory from the brink of defeat time and time again. He is a master of ambushing patrols and ship convoys, and is able to traverse warp storms that Imperial commanders would never dare enter. Owing to the Black Planet's daemonic gift, Verus is an expert infiltrator when on the field of battle. Obscured in Warp darkness as he passes unseen through the enemy's ranks, he strikes unexpectedly where they are at their weakest, disappearing before they can retaliate. His warband's super-sensory hearing aids his marksmanship greatly, and Verus has learned to target enemies outside of his line of sight, shooting behind his back with equal accuracy. He is also skilled in engaging several targets at once. For this reason he prefers to use pistols in each hand. Such is his mastery with this class of weapons that he is known to have slain entire squads of guardsmen in one salvo of absolute and superb marksmanship. While Verus Antoninus's armour bears no special powers, it is as ornate and damascened as is befit his station. As his personal weapons, he bears the master-crafted and gilded bolt pistol of Germanicus, taken from the long-dead chapter master and gifted to Verus when he was initiated into the chapter's Honour Guard. In his right hand he bears a plasma pistol known as Silencer, for reasons obvious. He was also gifted a blade carved from the tusk of Prince Sa’thiel himself, a relic that strengthens the shroud around him. With this unhallowed artifact, his infiltration skills are second to none.Category:Chaos Space Marines Category:Chaos Characters Category:Chaos Category:Slaanesh Category:Chaos Lords Category:Chaos Space Marine Characters